Former First Sea Lord says a split from Scotland would “reduce our ability to
defend these islands”

There is "no doubt" Scottish independence would harm Britain's defences a former First Sea Lord has said, after the current head of the Navy warned a split from Scotland would damage "the very heart" of the country's maritime forces.

Lord West said a yes vote in the September independence referendum would “reduce our ability to defend these islands”.

He said it would be very difficult to “unravel” the Naval forces and infrastructure which are split around the country and said the rest of the UK would have to increase defence spending to make up for the loss of Scotland.

Lord West, who was head of the Navy from 2002 to 2006, spoke after Admiral Sir George Zambellas warned independence would “greatly weaken” the effectiveness of the Royal Navy.

He said Britain’s maritime defences “cannot be subdivided meaningfully” between two nations.

Lord West, a former security minister, said he was in “absolute agreement”. He said: “The fact is that a split of Scotland from the UK would diminish the defences of the UK.”

He said: “Asking the rest of the UK to increase defence spending to cover the loss of Scotland leaving is going to be very unpopular.”

He also said that Scottish nationalists had underestimated the costs of building and maintaining their own defences.

He said: “They will have to recruit their own Ministry of Defence, their own training system, their own logistic system.

“They will have to decide ‘Are we going to have an MI6? Are we going to have a GCHQ?”

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said the UK's shared defence forces provide the "security and peace of mind" which underpin almost every area of the debate on Scottish independence.

A Yes vote would also result in "long and protracted negotiations" over defence issues such as the Trident nuclear weapons at Faslane, he said.

Meanwhile, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, another former first sea lord and chief of naval staff, has sent a letter to Alex Salmond co-signed by former heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and intelligence warning that the SNP's proposed constitutional ban on nuclear weapons "would be unacceptable for Nato".